Augusta National Golf Club

You can still see the hole for the trees, even though they have added 36 of them to the 11th hole of Augusta National Golf Club for next April's Masters tournament. The three dozen mature pine trees, ranging in height from 25 to 35 feet, have been added to the right side of the fairway at the already difficult 490-yard hole as part of the club's continuing toughening of the course.

Martha Burk didn't get it. Free and fawning media attention did not mean her point resonated. Access to the sporting press did not mean that the people of this town, or the fans of golf, or even a large number of women, feel a pressing need for a woman to join Augusta National Golf Club. She doesn't understand yet how the Masters as a sporting event can't easily be attached to the all-male club where it is played. For nine months Burk has been a media darling.

The field is muddy, a sunken spot out of sight and sound of Augusta National Golf Club. A city truck spread gravel along the edges so buses would have a place to drop protesters without the sinking of either bus or protesters. Richmond County Sheriff Ronald Strength delivered a stern lecture to representatives of groups who plan to patrol the field today from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. No microphones or speakers, but bullhorns are OK. Handing out leaflets -- fine. Selling souvenirs, not fine.

Though barred from the front gates of Augusta National Golf Club, Martha Burk will still protest. "In the pits," she said. And no more debating Chairman Hootie Johnson over the issue of admitting women as members to the club that holds the Masters. It's all about the corporations now, Burk said Thursday at the Martin Luther King Center. It's all about pressure now. It's about holding accountable the chief executives of Fortune 500 companies who belong to the male-only Augusta National.

The traffic outside stretched for miles, past bible stores and chicken joints and rain-soaked hustlers begging for tickets. "We are a private club ... " said Hootie Johnson. The crowd inside numbered thousands, filling the courtyard, wallpapering the fairways, lining up two dozen deep for the men's room. "A group getting together periodically for camaraderie...." There were camera towers in the pine trees and microphones in the azaleas and satellite dishes in the parking lot.

Beneath a dull, gray sky, the 67th Masters begins today at Augusta National Golf Club, in what you would have to call extraordinary circumstances. The weather has been unseasonably cold and damp, but chances are that things are going to heat up around here. Tiger Woods takes off in hot pursuit of his third consecutive Masters championship, something no one -- not Jack Nicklaus, not Arnold Palmer, not Ben Hogan, not Byron Nelson -- has been able to accomplish.

The day after last year's Masters, CBS announcer Jim Nantz summed up the less-than-compelling final day: "We did not see the majestic moments that we expected." Tiger Woods won the tournament with a cautious 71 as contenders Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen struggled for pars on the newly lengthened and narrowed Augusta National Golf Club.

Don't expect Augusta National Golf Club to start adding women's tees any time soon. Hootie Johnson, the club chairman, said Wednesday at his annual Masters news conference that there are no plans to invite its first female member. "Just because we hold a golf tournament, because some of our members are well known, should not cause us to be viewed any differently," Johnson said.

The question was about a quote, his quote. Tiger Woods said it seven years ago, before greatness, when he tried to make money from being a minority, when the color of his skin was as valuable as his swing. He said it while explaining the meaning of a Nike ad campaign that claimed he would change the world.

Even though a federal judge has ruled Martha Burk must take her protest of the all-male membership of Augusta National Golf Club away from the gates and into a field a half-mile away, she says she is continuing her court fight. Late Monday night, U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen, Jr.